Also, both papers only mention the Kwanzaa address on their Internet blogs, not the print additions. (The USA Today blog is actually about my article, "Christmas, Kwanzaa and Obama."

Even Fox News, the network that issues a news alert every time the President sneezes is keepin' this on the hush hush. I guess they are too busy trying to blame the Obama Administration for the attempted airplane bombing.

Is the "black holiday" a victim of a media "blackout?"

Let it be known that there are Kwanzaa events taking place all over the country.

Just because you don't see it on the news does not mean that it's not happening...

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Twas the night before Kwanzaa and all through the White House, staffers gathered to watch President Barack Obama, decked out in a red, black and green dashiki, deliver his first annual Kwanzaa address, urging Americans to practice the Nguzo Saba (the seven principals of Kwanzaa.) He ended his 45 minute speech with seven extremely loud shouts of "Harambe!" which scared the heck out of Conservatives and had Birthers across the country engaging in frantic Google searches , confident that they had finally come up with, indisputable, proof that Obama is part of some radical, militant foreign nationalist organization, deserving immediate deportation....

'Tis the season to be jolly; a time of gifts, celebrations and endless debates over whether black folks should celebrate Christmas or Kwanzaa. This is an especially touchy subject in the era of America's first black president , when any outward expression of "blackness" is subject to a vicious attack by Fox News for being separatist, divisive or just out of sync with the times.

While many African Americans will spend sleepless nights agonizing over whether they should hang stockings over fireplaces or place kinaras on coffee tables, the real topic of discussion should be the need for mutual respect for religious and cultural expression.

Historically, organized religion has had more to do with politics, economics and cultural hegemony than establishing a spiritual relationship with a Divine Being. This is clearly seen if one looks at the religious history of the descendants of those who have suffered under slavery and colonialism.

We must first start with the Portuguese missionaries who sought to "civilize the savage Africans." It is not the point here to question the religious zeal of the early Christian missionaries but to point out how they laid the foundation for slavery and economic exploitation in areas such as the Congo.

In his book, "Africans in History," Basil Davidson points out that Christian missionaries arrived at the same time as the exploiters in the Congo as early as 1483. This exploitation continued throughout the 20th century. As WEB Du bois wrote in his essay "The Rape of Africa, "the missionaries ,still believing in the expanding trade of the 18th century, coupled commerce with missionary effort and did not see the inherent contradiction between them.

Du bois further wrote "the result was that the missionary and the merchant worked side by side and hand in hand."

In America, it must be remembered that the enslaved Africans were not allowed to read the Bible and had to accept the interpretation of the scriptures by their oppressors as the Gospel, most of it resting on the false ideology of "the Curse of Ham" that forever condemned the sons and daughters of Africa to servitude.

This history led to the formation of various African American religious movements over the last 150 years that have tried to retrieve a sense of spiritual identity that was left on the shores of West Africa.

Out of this context, Kwanzaa was born. Although the celebration was first celebrated by Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga in 1966, Dr. Ishakumusa Barashango wrote in "Afrikan People and European Holidays: a Mental Genocide" that " Kwanzaa was the kind of celebration that was common to most African societies, though the name would be as varied as the many languages that are spoken on the continent."

Unfortunately, just like Christmas with it's commercialization, Kwanzaa has lost some of its meaning in recent years, prompting some to parrot the false pronouncement that Kwanzaa is not a "black holiday" in an effort to get corporate sponsorship dollars and advertisements from those who would frown on bankrolling a "separatist holiday." However, it cannot be overstated that Kwanzaa is just as African as St. Patrick's Day is Irish.

Also, some have mistaken the "nonreligious" Kwanzaa as an Afrocentric alternative to Christmas. This idea is false both geographically and theologically. From a geographic standpoint it would be impossible to deny the Afro-Asiatic origin of Judeo-Christianity as recorded by Afrocentric scholars such as Dr. Yosef ben Jochannan, John G. Jackson and Rudolph Windsor.

Theologically speaking, the principals celebrated in Kwanzaa and Christianity, as well, existed in Africa thousands of years before the first church was built. So, the idea that Kwanzaa is just a cheap substitute for Christmas is just a cover for those who do not have the courage to challenge traditional western, Euro-Christian thought.

The question facing us this year is can we put aside political and religious dogmatism and accept the beauty of cultural diversity? This is the only way that we will be able to achieve the proverbial "peace on Earth and goodwill towards men."

So, to my open minded liberal peeps sippin' egg nog while reading this article, I wish you the universal season's greetings of Peace, Love and Happiness.

And to the ultra conservative, closed minded bigots who, by now, are yellin' "Bah Humbug" at their computer screens.

"Habari gani, haters !"

Paul Scott is a self-syndicated columnist and author of the blog, No Warning Shots Fired.com. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com For information about the Intelligence Over Ignorance Campaign lecture tours visit ioimovement.com

Sunday, December 6, 2009

"It's all a part of fightin' devil state mind controlAnd all about the battle for your mind, body and soul."

"What Would You Do?" Paris

Meet Radric Davis aka Gucci Mane, a rapper with mediocre talent who is poised to become rap's next superstar. All over the Hip Hop universe, hypnotized fans scream "Gucci!," every time his song comes on the radio. How can this man go from mix tape rags to mega-stardom riches? Only in the Hip Hop Twilight Zone...

On December 8th, Gucci Mane will drop his latest CD, "The State vs Radric Davis." While arguably, not as "street" as his mix tape offerings, the content doesn't differ much from the same ol' Hee Haw Hip Hop coming out of the South dealing with money, drugs and hyper- sexuality.

This bring us to the fundamental question that few have had the guts to ask.

What's so good about Gucci Mane?

It must be noted that not everyone is sippin' on the Gucci Grape Kool Aid. A few months ago students at NC A@T and Florida A@M objected to their tuition money being used to fund the physical and mental genocide of black children by protesting Gucci's inclusion in their homecoming concerts.

But besides a few rebellions on college campuses, it seems that most Hip Hop heads are ready to crown Davis the new ruler of rap.

While most of the mentally dead will credit the popularity of Gucci as just good promotion by Warner Brothers, there is a thin line between marketing and mind control, as they both seek to influence human behavior.

One of the most diabolical masters of mental manipulation was Adolf Hitler's minister of propaganda, Paul Joseph Goebbels, who perfected the idea of the "Big Lie;" a falsehood told enough times will eventually be accepted by the masses as the truth. So if you tell a person that a rapper is hot enough times, (especially the weak minded) he will eventually go out and by the cd.

Why do we not believe that the Nazi's who own the major record labels have a stable of their own ministers of propaganda hard at work marketing madness to the masses under the guise of music?

Mental manipulation has also been used as an agent of social control by the US government. Although unknown by most Americans, the CIA has conducted many psychological experiments under their chemical and biological warfare research programs.

In her book, "Medical Apartheid," Dr. Harriet Washington, quotes the research of Allen Hornblum , who stated that between the 1950's and 70's, Dr. Albert Klingman conducted chemical warfare tests on predominantly black inmates in Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison as part of the CIA's MK-ULTRA program.

Could this be part of the reason that the Fed's are giving out so many 12 month sentences to rappers, including Gucci Mane, in an effort to convince black youth that spending time in prison is part of a rites of passage ? Or the reason that Davis is on the front of his CD cover dressed in a prison uniform with a handcuff (shackle) on his wrist?

It must be also noted that under MK-Ultra, drugs such as LSD were used as part of the experiments.

In his book, "Behold a Pale Horse," William Cooper alleges that during the height of activist mobilization against the Vietnam War, " Dr. Timothy Leary introduced drug culture to American youth under the CIA project, MK-Ultra."

This allegation is also echoed by Peter Doggett in his book "There's a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars and the Rise and Fall of the '60's "where he writes " there are conspiracy theories that Leary, himself, was a CIA agent."

Doggett also records Kwame Ture's (Stokely Carmichael) attempts to keep drugs out of the Black community and the Black Power Movement when he warned, " The reason why drug use has reached the proportion that it has today in our communities is that the political consciousness of our people is rising and in order to dull the political consciousness of our people, the oppressor always sends more drugs into the community."

Today, LSD and heroin have been replaced by malt liquor, blunts and crack as the opiates of the people, which is possibly why artists like Davis propagate the idea of getting "wasted." This is an especially crucial point to consider when the racist right wing are in the process of organizing their forces for the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.

In 2009, we are facing what rap researcher Professor Griff calls "the covert psychological war on Hip Hop."

So what do we do?

Can we continue to allow peer pressure from 13 year olds and those with teeny bopper mentalities prevent us from raising the tough questions ?

I say no!

The more you know the more you owe the younger generation an explanation for why the various pathologies from which we suffer exist and the role that the entertainment industry plays in our destruction.

The point of this article is not to offer ,indisputable, proof that Gucci Mane's music is part of some vast conspiratorial plot to destroy black people. (Though it does not refute the idea, either.)

But it is foolish not to consider, as a possibility, that mind control techniques could be used by the music industry to sell CD's and, also, by those who wish to keep black people disenfranchised.

We must, continuously, remind our people of the words of the great funk philosopher, George Clinton,

Friday, December 4, 2009

The Intelligence Over Ignorance Tour came to Illinois Wesleyan University on 12/3. TRUTH Minista Paul Scott conducted a Hip Hop roundtable discussion and was also the keynote speaker at the Kwanzaa celebration.

To arrange a date for the Intellegence Over Ignorance Tour contact (919) 451-8283 or email info@ioimovement.com

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A part of the Intelligence Over Ignorance Tour, TRUTH Minista Paul Scott will be giving a lecture titled "The Truth About Hip Hop" on December 3 at Illinois Wesleyan University. He will also be the keynote speaker at the Kwanzaa event later that night.

Paul Scott

Paul Scott

Paul Scott is a minister, writer, lecturer and activist. He has been a guest on talk shows around the world including Hannity and Colmes (Fox News), Fox News Live, Nachman (MSNBC), Hot 97 (NY), The Bev. Smith Show, Mancow Morning Show, Mike Medved Show, Russ Parr Morning Show, Mo in the Midday WVON (Chicago), Tom Pope Show (DC) Newstalk 1010 (Toronto) and SAfm (South Africa) discussing the issues of Rap,Race,Religion and Revolution. He has been interviewed by many newspapers including the New York Times, the USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. Scott has lectured at universities across the country including West Virginia University, Clemson, Winston Salem State University and Illinois Wesleyan University. Scott was ordained a Baptist minister in 1998 he later went on to coin the phrase Afrikan Liberation Theology, which is "Black Liberation Theology for the 21st century." After forming the New Righteous Movement, Scott formed the Messianic Afrikan Nation in 2003. For more information contact (984) 377-2064 info@nowarningshotsfired.com or Twitter @NWSF